The following post was written by an anonymous hacker who took part in the Ola API hack. He (or she!) details his/her experiences.

After a long delay in reaching Cherry Hills EGL, an air of excitement rolled out as I was nearing the venue. As I looked at all the participants getting down from their cabs, I thought to myself that this was going to be a big event, and a big event it sure was.

As I walked through the lobby, I heard giggles and murmurs. My anticipation grew with each passing step. The moment I entered the office, I could see scatters of people, some of whom I had a vivid memory of meeting in previous hackathons. A few minutes passed. I picked up a bunch of cool OLA API Hack stickers as I made my way from the registration desk to an empty cubicle. This would be our fortress for the next 24 hours.

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I’ve always been a fan of Hackathons. I believe that this is an effective model, both in terms of hiring candidates as well as working on interesting problems.

As the evening proceeded, we started started brain storming on an idea which we would hack on. After long hours of convincing and caffeine, out came our hack idea. The only thing that remained was the execution.

While working and hacking our way through the night, we came across interesting problems that we never thought about. And in between all this intense hacking, there was always time for a laugh and some fun. Partly because my team is absolutely hilarious with their juvenile one-liners and also because of the aura going around at OLA.

We somehow managed to pull the trigger at the last moment and successfully implemented what we thought we would do. By the time we were done implementing our idea, I feel we grew as individuals and also as a team.

OLAAPIHack.apk

The most intriguing part of the event was not just the hacking, but the whole experience. The pantry had these long tables which forced you to sit next to people who you did not know. This forced you to strike up a conversation with them. And I can say, this was by far one of the best experiences I’ve had. Special thanks to the Ola team and Venturesity for hosting such a great event!